Latest News

Terry Jones, QMI Agency

All these years later, Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey may have scored for the Edmonton Oilers. Who knows, they maybe even helped lead them to another Stanley Cup.

Two phone calls from the greats may or may not have gone a long way to creating another great day in Edmonton Oilers history.

At first blush, that’s how you’d want to write it.

But, like any satisfying win in sport, the truth is that winning the Justin Schultz Derby was because of fabulous team-work.

Schultz is here because Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov are here. He’s here because Gretzky and Coffey told him what it was like when that group grew together as young players. And because Hall told them what it is like now and because Ralph Krueger told him what it’s going to be like going forward.

The impact today, the excitement, is not unlike attracting Chris Pronger seven seasons ago to set up the trip to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final in 2006.

Which is ludicrous. Schultz hasn’t played a game.

But if Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is Wayne Gretzky Lite, Taylor Hall is Mark Messier Lite, Jordan Eberle is Jari Kurri Lite and Nail Yakupov is Glenn Anderson Lite, then Schultz, a right-side, puck-moving defenceman who now has those young stars of a similar age to pass the puck to and work with on the power play, is Paul Coffey Lite.

For a franchise much maligned for management inadequacy in recent years, Kevin Lowe, Craig MacTavish and Steve Tambellini will now have people patting them on the back for years as this team climbs the ladder up the standings.

It wasn’t obviously, just Gretzky and Coffey on the phone.

Hall played his part in person, as well. Tambellini said he could tell Hall connected with him as a current player and that was important. And he said new head coach Krueger did a brilliant job of convincing him of how he’d be used and how the team would be coached in the future.

Tambellini may not be the most decisive general manager in history, but he has to be one of the luckiest. To win the draft lottery three years in a row and now to have this kid choose Edmonton, goes on his record as a major plus.

I don’t know who masterminded the Schultz game plan and what parts owner Daryl Katz, Lowe, Tambellini and Craig MacTavish played, but it’s a huge win for them even if this kid turns out to be the second coming of his possible first blue-line partner Nick Schultz instead of a lower case Paul Coffey.

Suddenly, the day before free agency, Edmonton is now an official destination resort for good hockey players again. It’s not cold here any more! It was minus 99 for a long time, but now Edmonton is hot again.

Crazy that a city could be so over-the-moon for a player they’ve never set eyes on, who has never played a game as a pro. But if all the scouts in the world say he’s going to be a good one, that’s good enough.

Now it gets easier to put the rest of this group together.

With a ready-to-play, 22-year-old second pair defenceman to go with top-six forward Yakupov to add to the mix, Tambellini is now in a position of strength with many of the other assets he’s collected to make trades between now and whenever the season starts. Specific trades. Not general, we’ve-got-to-get-better-on-defence, we’ve gotta get-bigger, we’ve-got-to-get-tougher trades.

The bizarre thing about Saturday was the excitement and the way the entire story played out on Twitter. It was as if Twitter was the official rights holder with fans being notified of the latest team to get voted off Schultz Island.

First to be banished — the New York Rangers.

Then the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Then the next one.

Vancouver out!

The Canucks were supposed to be the favourite. Schultz is from Kelowna. The Canucks were his team as a kid. His parents are supposedly Canucks season-ticket holders.

Suddenly somebody wanted to play in Edmonton more than in New York, Toronto and Vancouver!

And finally the announcement from the Oilers own Twitter account: “The Edmonton Oilers have agreed to terms with Justin Schultz. More details to come.”

Who knows how much trouble Schultz going to have adjusting from college to the NHL. Jeff Petry took some time.

But Edmonton fans will see the Oilers as a playoff team starting now.

Schultz may turn out to be nowhere near the talent of an Eberle, Hall, RNH or possibly Yakupov. But from this moment, Edmonton fans can conceive and finally begin to believe they may someday see a Stanley Cup presented at their new downtown arena.